Download A Space Of The Heart Articulated By Patricia Wright Provided As EPub

I did not enjoy this much at all, An interesting premise, based on the author's family history, A young Englishwoman is sent to Russia into be a governess rather than marry someone too good for her.


Sounds good, but it was just dull,pages of unlikable people and the horribleness of poverty and serfdom, The "love worth all the defiance a daring heart can hold" that was advertised on the back cover It's the final twenty pages.
I know, in Jane Eyre, Jane and Mr, Rochester have precious few scenes togetherbut the ones that are there are fantastic! This one had no such redeeming qualities, and I'm so glad it's over and done.


Unless you are absolutely bonkers for the Crimean War, don't read this,

Epic, romantic historical originally published in the mids and out of print at the time of this reading.
The story begins in England but quickly moves to St, Petersburg and then to Kharkov in the Ukraine, The timespan is.

The author provides the following note about the struggle she depicts:

“There were at this time three principal divisions among thinking Russians: the Slavophiles who wished to turn their backs at all costs on what they interpreted as the degradation and soulless commercialism of the West and so preserve the pastoral simplicity and virtues of peasant life into the modern age the Westernizers who would speed up the development of Russia that had been started by Peter the Great, regardless of the almost total divorce of Russian people, conditions, and habits from those of the West and, thirdly, a very few who foresaw that if Russia was to escape the catastrophe which threatened her it could only be by some native blend of these two diverging schools of thought.
Not by talk but in action, not in immediate democracy but in gradually tempered absolutism, not in impossible dreams for the future but in practical, honest administration in the present.
And I think, even then, these few knew the difficulties inherent in the compromise they sought and the likelihood of defeat their efforts faced.
”

The main characters are Eleanor Lovell, a young English woman who travels to Russia to find a position as a governess Russians call her Ilena Vassilievna and Nicolai Pavl'itch, Count Berdeyev, who is traveling from England to Russia on the same ship as Eleanor.
Hes a general who was wounded and among other things went to England to seek treatment for his lame leg.


When the local lord learns that his son and Eleanor daughter of the local timber merchant have been secretly meeting and wish to marry, he puts his foot down and sends his son off to the army where he hopes his son will forget all about Eleanor.


Eleanor has a rather contentious relationship with her very strict mother who insists that she be sent away in disgrace.
St. Petersburg seems just the place, as they're told English governesses are in high demand there, However, once Eleanor arrives, she discovers the position promised has already been filled, and that English women aren't as much in demand as she's been led to believe.
She's been pounding the streets looking for a position and has no money left when she runs into the Count.
Berdeyev sends Eleanor to his cousin who has a young son and is married to the governor of Kharkov in the Ukraine where they will soon be traveling.
Berdeyev has misgivings and tells Eleanor he probably isn't doing her any favors with the introduction, but if she's able to secure a position it's better than a cold winter and starving to death in St.
Petersburg. Eleanor does indeed get the position and goes to Kharkov with the family,

After they've settled in, the governor dies with a gambling debt that is so complicated by the Russian system I'm not sure I understood all of it or could explain what I understood.
On his deathbed in front of witnesses he requests for Berdeyev to look after his son's interests.
Berdeyev is sent to Kharkov as temporary governor, His cousin, who hopes to profitably remarry, resents his position and plots against him with an officer in the secret police.
Berdeyev is at a disadvantage politically because he is the son of an exiled Decembrist, His duties are often impossible to fulfill and are met with resistance from a number of factions.
Eleanor in the meantime has her own problems to deal with working in his conniving cousin's household and volunteering at a hospital where injured soldiers from the Crimean War are being sent.


When Eleanor first met Berdeyev, she described him as short and spare with a scar on one cheek and a noticeable limp it's rather refreshing to read about a hero who isn't built like a star football player.
He looks to be somewhere betweenand, but we find out he waswhen his father was exiled so he'd be aroundat the start of this story.
Eleanor iswhen she left for St, Petersburg. Berdeyev is a very selfcontained man whose manner is dutiful but often stiff, He rarely displays his emotions, but his feelings for Eleanor are demonstrated through his actions, It takes Eleanor longer to realize how she feels about Berdeyev, We see them both soften toward one another as they become better acquainted and plow through one problem after another.


The politics and plotting are rather byzantine, Russians and their culture are seen through Eleanor's eyes, and are incomprehensible to her at

times, but she remains curious and drawn in by those around her.
Many of the peasants cling to superstitions, such as their belief that eating potatoeswhich are being cultivated and used to feed the Russian armyis a sin against god.
A Swiss professor at the local university explains to Eleanor the differences between the feudal system in the north the obrok and that of the south the barschina, and in his view the barschina is far worse.


By the end of the book Nicholas I has died and a conclusion to the Crimean War is inevitable, but Berdeyev and Eleanor must wait to marry until Russia and England are officially at peace.


The writing is a little heavy on infodumping via dialogue, and there is some awkward headhopping.
However, the history, clash of ideals and culture, and the struggles of the two main characters kept me turning the pages.
Im definitely interested in reading the even more epic followup also out of print, which is about the couples grandson and spans the Revolution through WWII.


Overall, Id rate this,stars, but am rounding up,
.